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Hi there,
New member, long time viewer (been looking at these forums for help, etc for a few months now). I've been programming little arcade-style games (pong, pacman, tetris clones, etc.) since i took up this personal quest, and am now looking to upgrade to the next step.
Basically, the general idea (outlined further down) is to write a single player RPG. No, sadly I'm not going for "the newest, fastest, most advanced, and overall best MMORPG to date" after two months of beginners stuff. I figured I'd get a simple one-player isometric rpg done first, and maybe, after the finished product, release an online version (open source and free, of course).
So, we come down to the main point of this post:
A) I'd like to work with a team on this if anybody is interested. Even a mediocre Programmer or Graphics or Music guy would be perfectly fine, as this is mainly to be a learning project.
B) If you're not interested (I realize it must sound like a bunch of fun to work with a n00b, whether he's completely clueless or has two months worth of experience), I'd still like your comments / suggestions / ideas / tips / whatever on the general outline listed below.
C) If you have already done this project, or something like it with source code or a demo or whatever, I'd love to check it out. (There are some areas that I'm particularly scared of in my first real project, and any reference at all would help tremendously.)
---The General Idea (completely subject to change)---
Genre: Medieval Anime-style RPG (Single Player for now, unless we are lucky enough to have somebody join up that has experience in the networking programming) For a general idea, I liked at least the anime for .HACK, and the random area system, but everything else has to go. More of an anime-style diablo-style RPG with random areas would be nice. (The Anime theme isn't manditory, but it would sure be a nice change from what's normally out there. .HACK had potential, but turned out being more annoying than anything else, between the combat system and the villages and everything else, and nobody else has seemed to want to fill in the spots where they failed.)
Play style: Isometric view (the first-person RPGs always seemed too hard to navigate, and Isometric seems like it would be a lot less coding than a full 3D environment)
Storyline: Standard save-the-world-kill-the-boss type thing, unless we figure something new and innovative (always open to new ideas)
Quests: Was hoping for a random quest generator, to go along with the main storyline.
Classes: From 8-15 character classes, probably 12 or so, each designed for a different playstyle. (mage, priest, samurai, whatever)
Races: 4-8 selectable races, each with their own pros and cons. (orcs, elves, humans, etc.)
Jobs/Professions: Possibly a job system, preferably with special abilities. Limit of 1 job per character if implemented. (blacksmith, merchant, mercenary, etc.)
Areas: Again, I like the idea of random areas, based on character level, but how that would tie into medieval times would be tough. Perhaps having something to do with broken portals (due to the final boss)or something? With random areas, the map is unlimited (or pretty close), and there's no need for the "portals" system used in many of the popular RPGs, as the main town in central to everything.
Leveling: Max level of 99 or so, attribute points (Speed, Strength, Agility) distributed, and a skill point. Scaled experiance system, so it's harder to get from 98 to 99 than it was to get from 97 to 98.
Attributes: Again, the basics, Strength, Stamina/Endurance, Agility/Dexterity, Intelligence, etc.
Skills: Melee fighting skills or Magic skills or Ranged weapon skills, depending on class.
NPCs/Allies: Basic quest-giver NPCs, shopkeeps, blacksmiths, etc, maybe an ally or 2 that follows you like a pet, but I'm leaning away from it.
Items: A basic random statistic item generation system consisting of normal items and "rare" items. Rare items will have more statistics available, and will have a greater number of random statistics available, but will be significantly harder to find. Health and Mana potions, of course. A main quest item (an orb or stone or something) will allow you to get back to town, but not to come back to the place you left (since the areas are randomly generated). Preferably items equipped will change the appearance of your character.
Character Creation: If at all possible, I'd like to have a character creation system, where you control the hair, hair color, skin color, and face of your character in the starting Character Creation screen (Many of these would depend on your Character Class). Height and Weight are possible options for this too, but about 5 options for each of the above should be plenty.
---The End of the General Idea---
Other Stuff: Can't think of much else at the moment, but I'm looking forward to comments, suggestions, and team members.

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This post will probably soon be moved to the Help Wanted section. Seems like a huge project. I like the idea behind the game. Your project sounds similar to a project that I want to start sometime, but I have alot of studying to do first. My advice would be that since it is a large-scale project, to create a design document. That will help you stay organized and give you some direction. Also pick up that book written by Ernest Pazera, "Isometric Game Programming with DirectX 7.0 ". That should help you with programming (assuming you are going to use DX). Stick with it and good luck.

-Jake

[Edited by - jake2431 on March 16, 2005 9:16:20 PM]

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Not especially sure about DirectX. It's what i've been using for my little "hello world" tetris progs, but will it hold up for a larger project like this? (After typing this, I'm sure it will hold up, but is it better for this type of project than other sdks?)

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Not especially sure about DirectX. It's what i've been using for my little "hello world" tetris progs, but will it hold up for a larger project like this? (After typing this, I'm sure it will hold up, but is it better for this type of project than other sdks?)

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I'm not that familiar with API's yet because I am relatively new to this stuff also, but I do know that DirectX will work fine for a large project. I personally have been looking more into OpenGL, but that a preference thing. They are both professional quality API's and either can suit your needs. I would say that if you want to do isometric and you have never dealt with it before then use DirectX since there is that book that is geared toward this (I haven't seen a book on isometric game programming with OpenGL). These are (as far as I know) the two biggest and most popular API's out there. There are also some other alternative API's out there like SDL or Allegro; you may want to check them out. Allegro seems to be a lot easier to use than OpenGL from the source I have seen, but I'm not sure. But yes DX or OGL will work very well for a project like this.